Title: RE;Apotheosis: Metamorphosis
Author: Robert B. Marks
Publisher: Legacy Books Press Fiction
Language: English
Format: Physical
Pages: 345
Release Date: November 3, 2023
Genre: Isekai, Reverse Isekai, Fantasy
The Story
Re:Apotheosis Metamorphosis is a sequel series to Re:Apotheosis. It book starts out with a recap chapter to get readers up to speed if it had been a while since they’ve read the previous books. Then, it jumps into its story. After Daiki returned home safely, Aquila, Kasumi, and Cap go on a tour of the story worlds but they are not alone. Along for the ride as the girls Natsuki, Yukari, Sayori, and Yuri whom Daiki met when he was trying to find his way back home.
One of the story worlds they arrive in takes place at a ball. They noticed that the ball is in a holding pattern as the main protagonist hadn’t arrived yet. Suspicious of this, they hold a bit of an investigation and discover that the protagonist, along with three guards, had been murdered. After some deductions and detective skills, they surmise that whoever did this was just like Aquila. Deducing that if this person is like Aquila, then they can hop between story worlds and may have the same objective: to cause a collision of the story worlds with their hub world and eradicate all story worlds in their contained universe.
Aquila says that the best course of action would be to just get the heck out of there and go back to the world she created for her and Kasumi to live on. It’s in a different universe so if this new villain were to succeed, they would be out of harm’s way. The only problem is that they’ve been hopping worlds for months and are a LONG way from home. It will take a while for them to get back there but they begin the journey nevertheless.
Of course, a journey can’t be simple. This new villain detects the disturbances in the information stream that they create whenever they hop worlds and decides to follow them, eventually meeting them in a world where a noble lives alone in a maze-like estate. There, we learn his name is Balthazar and he’s going around recruiting protagonists and if they refuse then they die. Aquila is discovered by Balthazar and he deems her a major threat. Despite escaping, Balthazar makes it his mission to hunt her across the stars to either make her join him or eliminate her potential threat!
The journey home just became a fight for survival!
Characters
Aquila is still just trying to live a post-war life. She has atoned for her crimes but still feels as if she could not be forgiven. If you are familiar with the events that transpired during her journey to get Daiki back home, you will also understand that she is still weakened a bit in this book and is still feeling the after-effects of those events which creates excellent continuity for her character.
As far as Captain “Cap” Infinite, he still is the superhero who wants to save everyone but he does have a bit of a new nuance to his character in the fact that he has found love with Yuri. This creates a new moral dilemma for him because he knows if he tries to hug her, his super strength would probably kill her. He loves her but he cannot give her the life that she deserves with him. Yuri doesn’t really care about that and just wants to make their relationship work. Then, there was a moment where Balthazar caused a firestorm in a story world just to draw out Cap and everyone else. Cap had to sit back and hear everyone burn just to protect themselves and Yuri. Because of that, he couldn’t come to call himself a superhero anymore. It was an impactful moment in his character but the beginning of a shift in mentality where he needed to prioritize what mattered most and learned that sometimes, it requires a very heavy price.
Natsuki is just a genius of a character. It was referenced multiple times that someone like her had no business being in a harem comedy series and I agree. If you want to talk about a sore thumb character, that’s her… but on their journey, her deductive skills are extremely valuable. There was even a moment where they come across a familiar face and the two of them just knew that it was futile for either side to lie to each other. I’d go into more detail but wish to avoid spoilers. There is a reason why there is high respect for Natsuki’s mind and her as a person! In fact, there is a moment where her answers just might be the key to stopping Balthazar’s war! I’ll just leave it at that.
Sayori, Yukari, and Yuri remind me a lot of Subaru Natsuki from Re:ZERO. They are characters who have no powers but feel compelled to pull their weight. They were enjoying the free ride over the past four years of world-hopping but once Balthazar enters the picture, they are filled with a duty to do SOMETHING to help out. They don’t even know what that something is but they still want to do it. I mean, guts get you so far, and making a decision like that sets them up to be cannon fodder characters. I actually laughed at that scene and was like “What are you going to do if a former god of destruction acknowledges that Balthazar is three to four times more powerful than she is?” They still brought their own unique personalities to the story, though.
This brings us to Balthazar. To me, he came off as a noble villain. Since he is very similar to Aquila, you can surmise that something tragic had to have happened to him for him to become this way. Since Aquila mentioned that he is tethered to an information stream like her, you can also tell that the tragic event happened to his creator. Heck, Aquila flat-out stated that to his face. Yes, we do know what happens at the end of the book so, don’t worry… the truth is revealed! In the meantime, Balthazar feels sympathy for the story worlds and wants to end them so that the characters can no longer suffer in them. He believes that he’s doing everyone a favor and by recruiting them, he’s removing them from their pain and suffering. The only thing that didn’t make sense at first was him killing the protagonists of the story worlds when he is fully aware that once the information stream updates, they’ll be brought back to life with no memory of being killed. Why not just leave them alone to die once the worlds collide then?
I thought that was weird until a plot point was revealed and then it all made sense but it’s still hard to call Balthazar a villain… especially when he sought an answer to a question. If he got the answer he wanted, he said that the war would end today and the story worlds would all be restored tomorrow. He sought the answer for quite some time and never discovered it so until someone can give him a good reason to stop, he decided to pursue his plan. This makes him a villain that can be reasoned with but also one who will not stop for anything unless he can be convinced to. That makes him pretty dangerous and something that cannot be ignored.
Final Thoughts
This is another great entry in the spiritual successor to Re:Creators series! This book felt like re-living the original plot of Re:Creators with a bit of a twist. We ended up getting a villain that you could actually relate to and one that provided sound logic for their actions. His obsession with Aquila though didn’t seem overbearing. He just recognized a tremendous threat and wanted to make sure his plan went off without a hitch.
The characters went through another journey and developed pretty nicely throughout it… especially Cap. Even those who sided with Balthazar had some pretty interesting backstories and reasons for joining up with him. We saw some returning characters in their “alternate universe” form which served as some nice cameos… especially when Aquila ran into Meliana.
All-in-all this was another love letter to fans of Re:Creators. Robert B. Marks continues to take a great universe and expand on it in interesting and creative ways! While the first chapter could get a new reader into the story (by the way, take note of the form of that initial chapter and the author behind it. You’ll thank me later), I would still recommend getting the full picture by reading the previous books in the series. All of them tell a great story that is highly worth your time!
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This item was provided for review by Robert B. Marks
At the time of this review, the book has not been released but is available for pre-order. You can secure your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Re-Apotheosis-Metamorphosis-Robert-Marks/dp/1927537797
